The chief goal of the Retinal Clinical Fellowship is to develop excellence in the medical and surgical care of the retina and vitreous, foster academic research, and develop future leaders in the field of vitreoretinal surgery. Former fellows are program directors, tenured professors, academic researchers and thought leaders. They are in practice in all parts of the United States and Canada, as well as in Puerto Rico, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The Wills Retina Clinical Fellowship combines surgical duties with clinical and academic responsibilities
in a two-year combined medical/surgical fellowship.
The Fellowship is led by fellowship directors Dr. Arunan Sivalingam and Dr. Richard Kaiser. All clinical and surgical activities for the fellows are located at the Wills Eye Hospital. Fellows are the primary providers staffing Wills Retina Service and provide retina consult services for the Wills Eye Emergency Room and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Fellows are closely mentored by the Wills Eye Hospital/Mid Atlantic Retina faculty in their medical and surgical training. The breadth of pathology and richness of clinical, procedural and surgical training is unparalleled. Upon graduation, fellows are well prepared for any facility of practice.
Academic research is highly encouraged in the Wills Retina Fellowship. Fellows have the opportunity to present their research at national conferences including AAO, ASRS, ARVO, Retina Society or any other conference of the fellows choosing. Monthly research meetings are held to discuss the status of on-going projects and generate future project ideas. Research meetings are led by Drs. Allen Ho (Director of Retina Research), Jason Hsu (Co-Director of Retina Research) and Sunir Garg (Co-Director of Retina Research).
Wills Eye Hospital hosts numerous phase I, II and III multi-center clinical trials. Fellows participate in all multi-center trials, serving as sub-investigators where they perform screening visits, intravitreal injections and/or other procedures as part of the study protocol, and serve as the masked or unmasked investigator.
Fellows may take up to 3 weeks of vacation per year with 1 week being taken during either the week of Christmas or New Year's Day. Academic days are allowed for conferences in which the fellow is presenting a paper or poster and for job interviews.
First- and second-year fellows jointly share call and determine the schedule. Weekday call (Monday through Thursday) is split such that each fellow is on call once every 8 days. Similarly, weekend call (Friday through Sunday) is split such that each fellow is on call once every 8 weekends. Each fellow also rotates Saturday morning rounding on post-operative patients once every eight Saturdays. The first call day for incoming fellows starts on September 1.
Retina Fellowship Director
Arunan Sivalingam graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1981, received his medical degree from Rutgers Medical School. He completed both residency and vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital. He currently serves as the Co-Director of the Retina Service and has been the Director of the Retina Fellowship for the past 21 years.
Retina Fellowship Director
Richard Kaiser is a Philadelphia native and completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He completed ophthalmology residency at the University of Pennsylvania Scheie Eye Institute and fellowship at William Beaumont Hospital. Dr. Kaiser has served as Co-Director of the Retina Fellowship for the past 12 years.